Vinny's opens second restaurant in York, escapes 'chain' scrutiny

YORK — An Appeals Board decision that a town official incorrectly ruled Mainiax Cafe a chain restaurant has persuaded him not to try to categorize Vinny's East Coast Grille the same way.

Herb Perry

YORK — An Appeals Board decision that a town official incorrectly ruled Mainiax Cafe a chain restaurant has persuaded him not to try to categorize Vinny's East Coast Grille the same way.

But he refrained from doing so against his better judgement.

Code enforcement officer Tim DeCoteau ruled last spring that Mainiax Cafe on Market Place Drive in the York Village Business Center was a "formula restaurant" because it was "significantly identical" to another restaurant operating outside town, the Mainiax Restaurant in Wells.

York resident Brian Cribby wholly owns the Wells restaurant and co-owns Mainiax Cafe with another York resident, Maureen Peard.

Peard had told the board the two restaurants offer different menus, and the York eatery does not have the table service the Wells restaurant offers.

Fast forward to this fall. Vinny's East Coast Grille, which opened in November on Woodbridge Road, is the namesake of Vinny's East Coast Grille in Ogunquit.

DeCoteau told The Weekly in December he had wanted to deny the new restaurant an operating permit on the same grounds he had originally denied Mainiax Cafe a permit, but he felt it would be a lost cause because of April's Appeals Board decision.

"The similarity has to be more than a name," DeCoteau said.

Board of Appeals member Leon Moulton said in April that overly strict adherence to town zoning ordinances not only harms the town but hinders the establishment of legitimate businesses.

"If you look at the town ordinance, it's so broad it would almost eliminate anything with a similar or almost similar name any place in the world," he said after the Mainiax Cafe decision. The board must favor an applicant over the town when presented with "gray areas," he said.

And DeCoteau posed two questions about town regulations.

"Can a town regulate the way a business operates?" he asked, referring to business names as an example. "Is that law legal?"

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